Pencils are being sharpened in the literary world as the row over cultural appropriation rumbles on. Last year Lionel Shriver found herself in the eye of a storm after she used her keynote speech at the Brisbane writers’ festival to complain that fear of ‘cultural appropriation’ was inhibiting both fiction writers who wish to write from the point of view of characters from other cultural backgrounds and members of minorities who wish to be seen as just a person.
Her comments came under criticism, with some suggesting the issue was her writing rather than her decision to portray a black character in her latest book. So, can she find solidarity with the literary sisterhood? Alas not. On this week’s Spectator Books Podcast, Louise Doughty — the Apple Tree Yard author — calls Shriver out over her comments. Doughty says Shriver was talking out of her ‘shiny white behind’:
‘I’m afraid I thought Lionel was talking out of her shiny white behind.
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